The RLA fears good landlords who apply for licences will have no choice but to pass the costs on to tenants in the form of increased rents, doing nothing to address affordability, while the criminal operators will simply ignore the scheme, as they do many other regulations.,

It also believes a £1,660 fee for a five year licence is an unnecessary financial burden to put on landlords, even with the discounts and that Bristol should pause the rollout until it has assessed the impact of mandatory HMO licensing due to come into force from 1st October.

The consultation response, which can be read heresays: “The Housing Strategy 2015-2020 aims to tackle the range of housing issues that affect people who live in Bristol, however these schemes do little but alienate lawful landlords by burdening them with additional costs, while criminal operators continue to ignore regulations and avoid these additional costs”.

It goes on to state that there is little evidence that licensing schemes improve housing standards. This is because the focus of staff becomes the processing and issue of licences, while prosecutions centre on whether a property is licensed or not, rather than improving management standards and property conditions.

The RLA also has technical objections to licensing conditions regarding inventory requirements and the code of Good Management Practice proposed in the consultation documents.